"We're on schedule to open 24 to 26 new stores in the next 12months," Aaron Kennedy, president and founder of the privately heldcompany, told GlobeSt.com. Its latest store is a 2,200-sf, 52-seatstore in south Boulder. Noodles & Co.'s October schedule callsfor openings in Highlands Ranch in Douglas County, the largestmaster-planned community in the Denver area, and Ft. Collins, northof Boulder. The aggressive opening program also calls for stores inWheaton and Naperville in DuPage County, Ill., west of Chicago.

The company is in its fourth stage of financing. The formerbrand manager for Pepsi started the noodle restaurant - wherefreshly prepared Asian food costs about $5 per meal - with $250,000in seed money from friends and family. "I came up with the ideawhile eating in an Asian noodles restaurant in Greenwich Village inNew York City," he told GlobeSt.com. "I had an epiphany."The firstrestaurant was in Cherry Creek North, a tony boutique area aboutthree miles from Denver's Central Business District. "We are lightyears away from our humble beginnings," he says.

One of the chain's smallest restaurants in north Boulderaverages sales of $1,000 per sf, says Kennedy, although a typicalone will bring an average of $500 per sf. Most restaurants averageabout $1 million a year in sales, he says.